Perform close to signing Serie A deals with Sky, Mediaset

MILAN (Reuters) - British media group Perform will soon finalize deals with Sky’s SKYB.L Italian business and private broadcaster Mediaset (MS.MI) to make its Serie A soccer coverage available to customers of the two groups, two sources said on Friday.

Perform last month acquired the rights to air in Italy three of the 10 weekly matches from the country’s top soccer league for the next three seasons paying some 600 million euros ($698 million) for the entire period.

The deals being negotiated go beyond simple re-transmission rights, the sources explained. With Sky, Perform is working to insert the app of its DAZN on-demand streaming service on the SkyQ satellite boxes.

Mediaset, which missed out on Serie A soccer rights, is in talks to sign a commercial agreement which would include DAZN in the package offered to its pay-TV unit subscribers, one of the two sources said.

Perform is 85 percent controlled by Access Industries, an investment group led by billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik, and has signaled its intent to become a leading force in sports streaming in Europe.

The remaining soccer matches in Serie A will be broadcast by Sky, which also won exclusive rights to show Champions League matches in Italy from the 2018-19 season.